E-bikes: Electric Bikes Environmental Boon or Bane?
Can 40,000,000 Chinese Owners Be Wrong?
Associate Professor Christopher Cherry at the University of Tennessee began his research into the impacts of e-bikes while a doctoral student at the University of California-Berkley. Cherry teaches in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
Cherry found that two serious environmental impacts are occurring as a consequence of e-bikes, which themselves produce no emissions. While the environmental impacts are indirect, they are no less dire to urban areas struggling with pollution and overpopulation. Beijing and Guangzhou have both outlawed the use of e-bikes on their streets.
"Electric bikes use one car-sized lead acid battery per year. Each battery represents 30-40 percent of its lead content emitted to the environment in the production processes, resulting in about 3 kilograms of lead emitted per battery produced," Cherry said in an article published by the National Science Foundation.
The other significant environmental impact comes from the emissions from coal-fired power plants, which provide the electricity for the energy-hungry Chinese economy. China has ramped up its power plant construction as its economy has exploded, with an estimated coal-fired power plant coming online every month for the next 2 to 3 years.
"The e-bikes certainly have fewer negative impacts than personal automobiles, but currently displace mostly bus and bicycle users and only a small number of car users," Cherry said.
E-bikes have made the scene across the globe, with kiosks set up for renting the vehicles by the hour, or the day, in several European cities and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Smart Cities program, they are promoting the use of e-bikes with their folding scooter that was put on display in Milan November 2007. MIT cited the burgeoning market in Asia as one of the reasons they designed and built their scooter.
From the perspective of the users of e-bikes, the economic impact is enormous in China's congested urban areas, giving the typical Chinese worker access to 3 to 6 times the number of jobs they could find using public transportation. "Trips are getting too long for bicycles," Cherry concludes.
Published by W Thomas Payne
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8 Comments
Post a CommentFunny, my electric bike has two small lead-acid batteries which together are about 1/2 the weight of a car battery. They are 4 years old and still going strong. Has the author ever seen/ridden an electric bike? In the US, they are recycled. Currently they are PAYING for old batteries at recycle centers ( about $2 per battery). The lead, the acid, the plastic are all recycleable.
My bike uses less than one cent of electricity per mile. After the 7 mile ride to work, I just plug it in. After an hour or so, it is fully charged and ready for the return trip. Flattens out the hills and negates the headwinds.
When was the last time you looked forward to the drive home?
randy
Since the writing of this article, a new generation of safe, lightweight, durable lithium ion batteries have been replacing the lead acid batteries of old. These batteries last 3-10 times longer than the lead acid, weigh 1/2-1/3 as much, and increase range and speed of electric bikes, making them alternatives for more and more of the uses of a car.
Dennis
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Dear Customer,
Bike world Ltd is one of the Best Selling Bike Distributor.We are
Legitimate registered Company under licensed number(RC55724).We ship
via UPS, and your ordered items will get to your door step within 48
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Giant, Jamis, Klein, Kona, Litespeed, Rocky Mountain, Santa Cruz,
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Nice idea...well done.
These bikes look nice! Not sure whether they'd work here in the US though? Everyone loves their cars. :)
I want one of these for myself :-)
Very well presented! I like the idea of electric bikes.